Construction of rehab center to start soon
CAMP TITO ABAT FACILITY
LINGAYEN–The establishment of drug rehabilitation center for surrendered drug pushers and users at Camp Tito Abat in Manaoag is now being finalized, according to Gov. Amado “Pogi” Espino Jr.
Espino said the project can proceed much faster now that his father, Rep. Amado Espino Jr., was finally cleared of his involvement in the alleged proliferation of illegal drugs in the New Bilibid Prisons.
He said two of the four signatures needed to start the construction inside the military camp have already been secured, namely those of the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Secretary of National Defense (SND).
Meanwhile, the governor continued to express alarm of over the increasing number of self-confessed drug pushers and users that surrendered. Records of the Pangasinan Police Provincial Office already list 13,000.
Although Pangasinan accounts for the biggest number of drug personalities that surrendered in Region 1, the province host only one drug rehabilitation center in Dagupan City operated by the Department of Health (DOH), a facility that only accepts referrals from the courts.
The AFP and the Pangasinan provincial government, assisted by the national government will jointly manage the facility.
Another drug rehabilitation center being eyed in Burgos town to accommodate those that surrendered in western Pangasinan.
The unfinished facility in Burgos was started during the administration of then Gov. Rafael Colet and then Vice Governor Gonzalo Duque.
Meanwhile, Espino revealed that one employee was found positive from the random mandatory drug testing among some 2,000 officials and employees of the provincial government sometime in August.
He withheld the name of the employee whose drug testing will still be subjected to a confirmatory test in a few days.
Espino said almost all employees took the drug test, except those who were on officials leaves and the employees of the 14 hospitals being operated by the province.
He said as former federation president of the LIga ng Barangay, he will ask barangay chairmen and their kagawads to also take the drug tests.
Meanwhile, the governor announced that “Oplan Galugad” launched by the provincial government and the Pangasinan PNP at the provincial jail found no illegal drugs but only contrabands like one cellphone and crude weapons. (Leonardo Micua)
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